LAUSANNE, Switzerland, May 20: Warren Buffett, the world’s richest man, said on Tuesday that few banking chief executives appeared willing to assume responsibility for the risks their institutions take.

“I think that the head of any bank or financial institution has to be the chief risk officer, you cannot delegate (the job) to someone who comes in once a week,” said the famed investor, known widely as the “Sage of Omaha.””

You don’t have a business running a great financial institution accepting funds from others unless you’re responsible for the risk,” he said.

He told a press conference here there were few institutions and people who “take that obligation seriously.”

Asked if he would buy a bank, he replied: “I’d buy a bank but I’d wonder who the banker was.”

Buffett, in Europe looking for family-owned businesses to invest in, said the fallout from the US subprime home loan crisis was the “consequence of people not understanding the (investment) vehicles they are setting up, the instruments they are selling.”

On Monday in Frankfurt, Buffett predicted the US economy would continue to face headwinds from the credit squeeze sparked by the collapse of the subprime or higher risk lending market.“I don’t think the effects of the credit crunch are far from over at all. I think there will be plenty of rippling secondary, tertiary effects,” he said.

Buffett is in Switzerland before proceeding to Spain and Italy.—AFP